By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Golden State 117, Philadelphia 105 – Box Score
One would not have expected the Warriors to look past the Sixers after Philadelphia took them to the final buzzer at home earlier this season. Combine that with the fact that the Sixers were without Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and Richaun Holmes, plus Jerami Grant suffered a right knee and quad contusion and left the game after only 3 minutes, and the effort on Sunday night was largely encouraging. After a 1-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, the Warriors stretched the lead to 16 at the half. However, the Sixers kept it a game, and Golden State didn’t even remove its starters until just inside of 2 minutes left in the contest. Small victories, Sixers fans.
With it being a relatively quiet night from Steph Curry, fellow splash brother Klay Thompson picked up the slack with 40 points, going 7-14 from three. 13 of Thompson’s points came in the fourth quarter, ensuring the Sixers were never close to transitioning from moral victory to actual victory. Draymond Green performed his standard triple-double feats of strength, dropping 13 points 11 rebounds, 11 assists, and 3 blocks. Mo Speights got his usual revenge on his former club, scoring 17 points on 7-10 shooting in 20 minutes.
The decimation of the Sixers front court left it up to the old timers, and Philadelphia’s veteran big men actually performed fairly well. Carl Landry led the team with 22 points on 9-15 shooting. Meanwhile, Elton Brand dialed it back to the early-2000s with 10 points on 5-6 shooting and 2 blocks. One of those rejections came on Draymond Green, where he managed to dance some twinkle toes along the sideline and throw it off Green to give the Sixers the ball.
EB still got it man (CSN) https://t.co/nye3byQNCy
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) March 28, 2016
Other positives included Ish Smith, who was excellent for the second straight night with 20 points on 9-14 shooting and 10 assists. Also bringing his maybe not A, but B+ game was Robert Covington, tallying 16 points on 4-7 shooting from three while grabbing 11 rebounds.
The Sixers also made a roster move earlier in the day, releasing Sonny Weems to bring back Christian Wood to help with the frontcourt depth. Wood had played the last two nights with the 87ers, and then traveling to Oakland. he understandably looked tired in his 5 minutes of action. Hopefully, Brett Brown gives Wood some minutes when he’s not on his third game in three nights.
Next up is Charlotte on Tuesday night. A similar effort to the last two games and that elusive 10th win is bound to come at some point.
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